teachers and administrators are held accountable to make sure all the kids are getting the education they deserve. and i wanted to share a quick story with you of what happened in a conversation that i had this week. there's a woman that's a friend of mine who has spent a lot of time on her elac and she's an immigrant and she's learning english. she told me last year her son had a great year. he had a fabulous teacher and they were all excited. but in the summer when she got her star scores, not a test or anything, but he is performing below basic. and she did not understand because her teacher was saying that he was doing great, things are looking good, and now -- and he's also in the after school tutoring program, and she's really concerned because she feels like she doesn't know

what to do. she spent a lot of time volunteering at the school, she spent a lot of her personal time working with her kids and she told me she works as a nanny and she told me now she has to work overtime to hire a private tutor for her and she feels betrayed. and this is just one example. there are many parents who are very happy with the school system but her son goes to school at a star school and, you know, the passing -- the proficiency rate is barely at 50%. and so there -- the story echoes very clearly on a certain side of town where i live and my friends live, and so we want to make sure that all the schools across the town are setting the same high standards for all kids in making sure that they all get the education that they deserve. so that is a priority that we would like to make sure that you'll hear us talking about frequently on the p.a.c.

>> another priority is parent engagement, clearly. with the start of the new school year that's on a lot of people's minds. i know at our school we're trying to figure out how to better recruit a more diverse range of parents and meet the needs of our families and how to communicate with our families and really feel this is an important step for improving the schools. we know we've heard in conversations in the past on the p.a.c. that better communication is really critical. parents are really looking for that. i know that i've been talking to a group of parents that have been writing letters for 10 years about a teacher that they're very concerned with at their school and they're not clear about where these letters have gone, about how the process works, about how complaints are heard through the district. very important to have a transparent process in place where parents understand how these process ees from the

district work. communication is one of the issues we've heard. parents want to be engaged but sometimes have barriers and we're hoping schools really look at some of these barriers and how to get around them. and schools need to be building connections with neighborhoods. we're really excited about the new parent engagement plan and the draft that was read and really are looking forward to helping with implementation of this plan in the future and helping to look at how that might be efficiently and effectively done. we really feel it's important this plan doesn't get shelved but that it's really an active plan. this is such an important thing to our district and our kids and our families, so we just want to reiterate the need for a time line and the need for some accountability measures for meeting the standards and are really looking forward to working with the district on that. >> and the last thing that we want to talk about is the

feedback on attendance areas and feeder patterns for enrollment. the p.a.c. is not making a comment directly on that because the p.a.c. has not met. our first meeting is coming up next week. but we want to remind you of the priorities that you set out when you decided to re-create, or, sorry, to change the student assignment system. and those priorities are to reverse the trend of racial isolation and the concentration of underdeserve served students in the same school and to -- underserved students in the same school and to provide a stage at the assignment process. when you're hearing the voices we want to make sure you're hearing the voices of the parents when you're looking at the proposal. we, partnering with you and p.p.s. had many conversations with parents about the new enrollment plan and this attendance area and feeder

patterns should reflect some of those conversations hopefully that we've had. and so i just wanted to remind you that some of the key themes that we've heard from the parents, again, and this also is from the summary report of the findings, that parents want choice. and including those who want to choose their local schools. we want to make sure those things are going on as well as parents want the school and their community to be high quality. they want equitable access to quality schools and every parent wants that for their child. and i think natasha is going to add on a couple more things. >> again, i was excited to hear about the website and see the work you're doing around communicating with families about this, the community meetings are a really important part and the survey. and we just want to reiterate it's a very quick turn around time that we're looking at and it's the beginning of the school year and a lot of these meetings are overlapping with

back-to-school nights and other events like that. so we just want to reiterate how important it is to recognize to use your voices as parents in the process and make sure they're all being heard and we appreciate all the attempts that everyone is making to do that. so we're looking forward to the upcoming year and working with everybody and we're excited about all the new things going on. >> thank you. >> and i hope you'll be able to give us some feedback, too, on the plan and boundaries at our next meeting. >> i wasn't -- sorry. >> as soon as you're done. >> i was going to take comments and questions from the board. commissioner maufas. commissioner maufas: thank for you your report and thank you for being here at the school year. but i would hope we would begin to set up -- [audio problems]

commissioner maufas: that we can set up an avenue of conversation because i think what happens when the p.a.c. comes to report to the board of education we hear a lot of complaints but i don't ever hear about how they're resolved, and the next meeting comes in two weeks and we hear more complaints or issues that are happening out in the community with parents, and i think the answers, as you're speaking about those issues, i know some of those answers immediately. but do you get those answers from us and can you disburse that information readily to your community members, parents and schools? so i'd like to for us to -- and with the board of education and the partners that we work with, to figure out how we can turn around that information to you so you can post-it up on your website and have it because it just seems a little one-sided and i know there's information out there for you to use and then disburse among parents so they know what to do and what happen with paperwork -- or

what happens when there's an issue with a students-teacher relationship, that information is available. and i just want to make certain that in our discussions with the board of education and the p.a.c. that we're responsive. and i know that partners that work with us are ready to respond. and again, that information is readily available. >> and i also want to apologize. we're not here to complain. commissioner maufas: we just want to make sure you know what the parents are saying. but maybe it's my miswording, but i'm a founding p.a.c. member so i under those issues and they need to be brought to the board of education and we need to be able to respond. and again, while you're talking, i already know some of those answers but that's just me knowing those answers. you need that information and you need to be able to disburse it to the community. so that's what i want to make certain we have a conversation

that's continuous and open. instead of it being one-sided you talk to us and go away and two weeks from now you come back fenn and talk to us, we want to be able to respond. >> we would very much like that. we would love to hear from you. thanks. president kim: any other comments? commissioner yee? commissioner yee: thanks for the report. i'm just -- i'm just curious. can you go back to when you have your next meeting to see if you'd be willing to have a discussion around lunch periods , because what's been interesting is that last year when i went around the schools, there were very few schools that actually had a lunch period where they allowed the students to go out and play first and then they would eat at the end of the lunch period, and so i thought there were a

couple creative principals out there. and yesterday i went to four elementary schools and all four of them actually were doing that, where they were allowing the kids to play first and eat at the end of the period, and many of the teachers said they really like it because they're actually seeing results of where the students are actually eating the food rather than chopping on one bite and running out and playing basketball or whatever. so i'd like to hear from the parents to see what kind of reactions you're getting and whether or not you think it would be a good policy for us to pursue for it universally at the elementary school level and not -- or not. president kim: any other comments? ok. thank you very much. also, i just want to confer there's a p.a.c. meeting next tuesday. i have that on my calendar. because i know at the last

p.a.c. meeting members had asked us to come and attend the first meeting so i just wanted to confirm, so it's next tuesday, august 31, at 6:00 here. >> yeah, i think it's going to be in -- i'm not sure of the room number. but we can get you that information. president kim: could you email it to the board? >> sure. president kim: if any of us could make it, it would be great. >> we'd actually like to invite you to come. we'll send a general information for you to come and speak to us quickly at our second p.a.c. meeting. so the first meeting you're more than welcome to come join us, but we will be sending you an invitation to come. president kim: commissioner fewer [ commissioner fewer: when was the second p.a.c. meeting? >> we haven't decided that yet because we haven't met for the first time yet. commissioner fewer: i didn't know you had a regular or whatever. >> we usually do, sorry. commissioner fewer: i would like to come and talk about the

parent engagement plan, if you could agendize me, i would be happy to come and talk about the division that we've been discussing about parent engagement. and get feedback from you, too. >> that would be really fantastic. president kim: commissioner norton? commissioner norton: i talked to somebody about coming to a p.a.c. meeting but seemed like you were going to stagger a board invitation so you wouldn't have more than two board members there at a time, is that right? is that kind of what you're thinking? because i don't know, it seems to me i talked to somebody about coming to a p.a.c. meeting but it's not in my calendar. >> it's great to have this much interest in coming so if we think there will be a need to stagger, that would be fantastic. we can -- commissioner norton: maybe when you set the schedule and send it to us, that would be great.

president kim: item f is public comment and consent items. we have two speakers signed up for this. i have judy rosenfelds and dennis kelly. please come up to the mike. you have two minutes each. >> hello, good evening. my name is judy rosenfeld. i'm the nurse at mission high school. and i wanted to talk about the after-school program. i don't know exactly which k resolution it is, but overall, the after-school program, the excel program is a totally integrated program in our school, and we depend on it, the kids depend on it and the staff and the parents depend on it. over half of our students do

participate on a regular basis and the coordinator of the after-school program is a very integral staff member. and in the school, as a nurse, i have personally seen what i -- i've referred -- it's got to be over 50 kids to the after-school program, i've seen it cure the condition of headaches, stomachaches that plague the school district, all the kids with headaches and stomachaches because i don't get time to do stuff that's superfun and they really want to choose and it gets them involved in school and part of school. i understand that there have been problems with excel. i don't know what all it is but i would -- that's in the past. and i really don't think that the problems that happened in the past should have an affect on the future of the program. students and parents have been asking already when is it going

to start? and we hope we can tell them it will be starting very, very soon. thanks. >> good evening, i'm not dennis kelly. i'm linda plaque, the executive vice president of the united educators of san francisco. and i just wanted to get up this evening to say hello, welcome everybody back, superintendent, commissioners, staff, ladies and gentlemen of the audience. i want to mention something about the race for top money. it's veryit is very unfortunate california did not get it. why did we tried to get it? we are desperate this is a disgrace. the educational reform we are engaged in is not the reform we

should be engaged in. what the administration wants us to do is relate not sound, research-based educational policy, and it is unfortunate. in a way, i am not fat and happy we did not get it. -- not that unhappy we did not get it. let's see some research. what about school number 11? school no. 12? why are we engaged in this type of competition. this is a crazy competition we are engaged in. where is the senate seat?

-- sanity? where is the justice for our kids. we can look forward to federal funding. thank you, congress. thank you for the hard work. now what's? hopefully, we can bring back the laid off professionals, the laid-off classroom teachers and other support personnel, who we desperately need in this district. we have been struggling for a long time. on page 84, you will see a list of people who have been brought back, but as i look at the lives of people we hired, -- at the list of people we hired, i see many of our talented young teachers have resigned.

we have lost a great deal of talent. i hope the government will respond. we have to solve this entire process. there is something really wrong with the whole thing. >> this is just public comment on our consent item. i am not sure if i made this clear. i am not quite sure if those were addressed. we do have another consent calendar item. >> you would think i learned the first time. i am going to speak briefly about item k-14, which is the

new teacher project. today i got a phone call from the examiner about why our test scores were suddenly going to have. -- going up. the first answer i gave was our teachers. that has to do with the wonderful work they have done. this project has supported mission high school and other schools like us, all the way through the entire h.r. process of interviewing, recruiting, and retaining a wonderful, well- qualified teachers. every year, we have been able to build an incredible staff, and it is really due to the great work. i want to put in our to sense --

two cents. >> could you be specific? the union has cards on a number of items. >> item f is public comment. this is what you want to speak about on the consent calendar. >> we have any number of resolutions we are willing to speak on, and we want to know if you want all of those together at once. if i can draw your attention to page 35, page 35 is a change of

money for the fiscal year. it specifically takes money from the child development program and hires a psa -- tsa. is that then assigned in the child development program, or is that loss from the child development program and going to a different place? it is particularly sensitive because of the need to have child development programs, not even. -- programs, and now it's even -- programs come out even. you have six of those that did not identify anybody these are

working with, so they are probably working with somebody, but they are not identified in your material, and i would think you would have some interest in knowing where these are going forward. on page 48, you are in the buildings and grounds section. it talks about international studies academy. it talks about an item for us the service removal and cleanup. this is specifically referring to the building. there has been assessed those found in other -- asbestos found in other areas of the site. i would like to see what the

efforts are too clean that out. continuing on -- is this really the way you want this done? >> we did change this several months ago. this is one time we will start taking advantage of it. >> on page 106, you have a resolution which essentially looks like you are contacting the work at h.r. by spending $128,404 to hire the friends of the school of arts to not only higher but managed all the artists in residence and taking it out of the districts hands and put it in the hands of a separate, private organization.

i am on page 124 now. he spoke highly about the new teacher project, and we're not here to criticize that, but what it says in the description is they will provide consulting services to support the reorganization and the strategic staffing in the superintendent zones for a quarter of a million dollars. it would be my presumption that they are staff now. what are the needs in those zones, or are those not staff at this time.

then you will take the resolution 15, starting on page 126 through to page 139. notice these are the students support resolutions, and you have some strange variancts. you are talking about a cost of $265,000. on page one under 31, you have 627 students for $560,000. keeping in mind as the bouncing ball moves further said you had these students, and when you get to page 134, you find out you

serve wanted 38 students for $230, and there seems to be a fairly large disparity of what is being done, and the right of some are very similar -- writeups are very similar. these are items we have been the agenda that we hope you would be able to find answers for that would be clear to us. >> may we have a motion and a second on the consent calendar? >> the item on page 77.

the last line should read, it is estimated to cost $150,000. the second is on page 139. the requested action should read that it authorizes to enter into a memorandum with the bay area urban debate commission. this will stay in full force until may 27, 2011. the purpose is to establish of bay area fervent debate league.

>> thank you. any items for a first reading by the board o? commissioner norton: i would like to sever 2b. >> thank you. >> w30 and k14. >> seeing no others, roll-call -- >> 106. >> roll call will take place. we have an ordinance of the board of education, authorizing

a special task. this has already been moved and seconded, and we will have our reading. >> i will just read the most relevant portions. by passage of this ordinance, the board authorizes a special tax pursuant to section 53338 in accordance to exhibit a. the special tax is in fiscal year 2010 through 2011. >> i do not have any speakers signed